Major problems with computers

Thanks, It looks a little over my head.

 

Hi MRSCT,

How much free space do you have on your hard drive (the one with the paging file problem)?

Nick

 

How do I look it up

 

Open My Computer, right-click on C:, and select Properties.

Nick

 

1.87 free 13 full. I just did a disk clean-up.

 

Hi MRSCT,

Can you just clarify that last bit please by Double left Click on the 'My Computer' Icon on your Desktop, then Single right click on your 'Local Disc(C'....Then scroll down to were it says 'Properties' and Single left click on that.....Then Post Exactly what it says for:-

USED SPACE.

FREE SPACE.

CAPACITY.

Cheers and Best Regards, Cochise,

 

used 14,141,444,096 13.1 GB
free 1,897,816,084 1.76 GB
capacity 16,039,260,160 14.9GB
DIDN'T DO DISK CLEANUP

Hope this helps

 

Hi MRSCT,

Looks like you have less than 12% free space. You need at least 15% free space just to keep your disk defragmented. I'm not an expert on paging file size (virtual memory), but with 128 MB of ram, your virtual memory requirements are pretty steep. Using features like Fast User Switching and resource-hungry security apps make the situation worse. As is, no amount of tweaking will make this system stable. At minimum you need to double the ram and free up as much disk space as you can. Ideally, you should also upgrade your hard drive, install XP on it, and slave the old drive to it so that you can grab the important files that you have stored on it.

Nick

 

Hi, MRSCT,

Sorry to say but with the small amount of RAM you have and the HDD virtually all used up, your sort of trying to get a Gallon into a 1 Pint Pot and consequently your Computer is going to cough up Error messages forever and a day....To get any sense out of your Puter you are you are going to have to do more than 'Disc Clean' and unload a lot of stuff. Did you say you were trying to load XP? if so you will need at the very least 256mb Ram.
Have you tried running a Hijack this and sending it to the appropriate Forum (Not Wilders) if you have a look around here you'll find the Link. No doubt some one else will come up with that for you.
Either way you really do need more of 'Everything'...
Like to know how you get on,


Best Regards Cochise,

 

This particular computer with the paging file problem does have 256 MB of ram. My other 2 computers have 128 MB.
The information on the capacity is for this computer. This computer is 2 years old and has XP home edition.

Ouote

"I am a novice with the computer and still don't really understand many things.
Have you tried running a Hijack this and sending it to the appropriate Forum (Not Wilders) if you have a look around here you'll find the Link. No doubt some one else will come up with that for you."

I don't know about other forums. I keep getting asked to go to a different forum. Is there 1 forum that can do everything so I don't have to keep changing! running a Hijack ?

 

256 MB may not be enough. It depends on the load on your system. One rule of thumb is to look at your "commit charge peak" in Task Manager's performance tab after normal usage. If it is close to the "commit charge limit", then you need to add memory (more RAM or increase the paging file size). If you have little free disk space, then you have to add RAM.

Nick

 

How and where do I look that up?

 

Right-click on the taskbar, and left-click the "Task Manager" option. Then click the Performance tab.

Nick

 

I'm not sure what I am looking for.

 

As Nick S said - right click on the bottom taskbar, a menu pops up, left click the entry "Task Manager", click Performance tab. Or press Crtl-Alt-Del, the task manager pops up, click Performance tab. In either case, a window similar to that shown below should appear.

Blue

 

I saw the window, I don't what I am looking at. The lines and numbers, they keep changing.

 

What is the Commit Charge relative to the installed RAM in the system? Look at the Total and Peak numbers, the Limit includes the Pagefile. Basically you want the Commit Charge to be less than physical RAM since you don't want to be spending a lot of time swapping between physical and virtual memory. You generally want the physical RAM is be significantly larger than Commit Charge Peak value so that you have a reasonable amount of room that XP can use as system cache.

Don't worry about the numbers hopping around - give us a feel for what you are seeing. If you can, write down all the numbers shown in the lower section of the jpeg I posted (post a jpeg if possible). Don't focus on the numbers changing - give us a rough sense of what's going on before worrying about too much detail.

Blue

 

My son says that he doesn't know how to do a jpeg.

 

Just writing the numbers is fine. However, if you do want to give snapping screen images a try, download MWSnap. It's a handy tool to have and will allow you to capture dialog boxes, the desktop, user set areas, and so on which you can then save in any of the formats including jpg. Program usage is fairly straightforward and there is a decent help file. To associate an image with a post, use the Manage Attachments button below the area where you type in text.

Blue

 

Thanks Blue,
You always seem to be able to break things down a few levels. I will try to type the numbers a little later.
MRSCT

 

I just copied these numbers from the task manager.

Total 275120
Limit 491492
Peak 287348
Processes 48 CPU Usage 41%

 

MRSCT,

What these numbers say is the following - the total committed space when you wrote the numbers down was 268.7 MB. The peak committed space observed in that session was at 280.6 MB. These are amounts of the physical RAM and virtual memory used in the two contexts. The limit - which is physical RAM and complete pagefile - is 480 MB. You're not bumping into that limit, so you're not getting paging file errors. This is good.

Unfortunately, you indicated above that this system has 256 MB RAM installed. Since your commit charge (and lets assume that it's a typical value) exceeds your physical RAM, you're going to be using your harddrive as virtual RAM on an on-going basis - not just during transient heavy system loads. This can simply bring overall performance to a crawl.

My basic suggestion - install more memory. I'd recommend another 256 MB of RAM - but if the numbers you transcribed are typical - another 128 MB should yield a perceptible performance boost.

Blue

 

Hi MRSCT,

You have another problem with your CPU usage at 41%, if that is typical. That probably has to do with the number of processes running at 48. I rarely go over 37 processes including about 5 security programs. When your system is idling, your CPU usage should average about 2%. You will have to take a look at what those processes are and decide whether or not you need all of them running. Are you sure your system is clean of malware?

Nick

 

Just following up on nick s,

Nick's right that the 41% CPU utilization is a flag to pay attention to. There are many possible reasons for that, but if that's a constantly high number, it's a problem. It's hard to dissect remotely. Constant pagefile swaps will tend to do this. If you caught the PC in the middle of an AV scan, you'll also see a high number. Whether that process count is high or not depends on a lot of factors, but it's rather steep for a PC that's light on RAM. My son's PC's tend to run like that, so it's not that unusual, but it will make system slowdowns much more prominent.

Blue